India U-17 World Cup coach scouts four boys for squad

New Delhi, Nov 28 (IANS) India's U-17 team's coach Nicolai Adam has scouted four boys from recent countrywide trials, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) said in a release on Monday.

Adam, who was present to watch the selected boys play for a combined AIFF U-19 academy team in Goa, told www.the-aiff.com that the selected "boys deserve another trial with my team".

"There is no guarantee that these boys would eventually make it to the World Cup squad but they certainly deserve the chance for another trial with my team. The four boys would join my camp after we come back from our back to back tournaments in Brazil and Russia," the German coach said on Monday.

"I myself have been actively involved in many scouting ventures since taking over but from my experience, I can say that this was one of the better ones from all which I have attended. The level of football which I say was really impressive and we have scouted four."

Adam said the idea to widen the pool and look for players from the U-16 youth league as well is done to give young players "more opportunity to play".

"In youth football you just have to give the boys the opportunity to play and that's how you scout players. So we decided on an extra round of scouting and it has paid dividends."

India are set to host the U-17 World Cup next year. The AIFF conducted countrywide trials recently to unearth talent who can make it to the U-17 national team that will play in the World Cup.